April 11th
Several days ago we got back in contact with a Japanese women that we had met at a guest house right after temple 12. She was very helpful in giving us information about the route as she has done it four times and is a guide for some of it. She told us that she lives near temple 77 and if she was home, she would love to meet us and take us out to lunch. We sent her an Email and got the response that she would be around and where to meet her. Our plan is to visit two temples, visit Tomo for lunch and then visit one more temple after that.
Our first temple of the day is Temple 76.
We enter the gate and see a group of older people doing Tai Chi. One exercise is with fans. It set the atmosphere for the rest of the visit here.They were doing it to music.
Tai Chi
There are several bus groups here. We listen to them chant while we pray.
We see Charlotte and Dennis at the temple. She tells us that she has done research on each temple and she want to show us a special sculpture here. It is a small sculpture of a small man that has his hand on his ear and another hand holding an open bag.
This little man is responsible for listening to your complaints or worries and then putting them in his bag so you don’t have to worry or think about them.
More things.
We think that these were placed when praying for your children. Then there was a statue of a cow.
And more beautiful flowers.
They are all so fresh looking.
Heading out and going to Temple 77.
Heading into the gate.
And immediately seeing some of the 255 Cannon statues that are spread round the park.
They are everywhere.
And more beautiful flowers.
A smaller pagoda
Time to leave and meet Tomo at the Marugame station. On the way we see this banner that makes us smile.
An Udon restaurant that is one of her favorites is near by. She helps us to order noodles and some tempura vegetables to go with it.
It was a lot of fun and we had lots to talk about. Finally the manger came over to our table and told us that people were waiting to eat. She suggested that we go to a tea shop to talk some more. There were the cutest puppies there for adoption.
Dogs are rarely seen on the streets and we have never seen anyone hiking with a dog. Our conversation had to end as we had one more temple to visit before going to our hotel
Saying goodby to our friend.
On to the last temple for the day which is Temple 78, Compared to some of the other temples of the last few days, this one is fairly small. We headed thru the gate.
And we were glad to see that there were still cherry blossoms here.
There was a room here that was underground that had lots of golden small statues.
Very nice gardens were around the edges.
Going to the Last Hall of the day.
We headed to our hotel and with plenty of food in our bags, We decided to just eat here. Only saw one person today that was hiking the route in reverse.
Accommodation Utazu Grand hotel
Miles hiked 19